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Un-beta'd - all mistakes my own. I am making no money from this and the
Ozzies are not mine, just borrowed for a while.
Family Reunion 1/? by Rosybug
Family reunion
I.
"Why don't the pair of you take some time off?" suggested Cragen dryly to
Elliot.
Elliot smiled a small, lop-sided smile. Simultaneously, Chris, who was
sitting at Olivia's desk, with his feet up and his hands behind his head,
smiled too. His had more megawattage. They shot each other a covert
glance.
"Sure, Captain," said Elliot. "But we're on skeleton staff over the
holiday season. Don't you need as many hands on deck as possible over the
next few days?"
"We'll manage without you for a while. I'll let you know if we're under
pressure, Elliot. Why don't you go and catch up with each other a bit,
spend Christmas together for the first time?"
Elliot stood up and rolled down his sleeves. Chris swung his legs off
Olivia's desk (thankfully she was on leave herself and not there to see
how he'd treated it over the past few days) and pulled down his sweat
shirt sleeves too.
"Thanks, Captain," said Elliot as they headed to the door, both swinging
their leather jackets identically off the hall tree as they went and
shuffling into them. Brand-new, matching, black leather jackets. Chris's
Christmas present to them both apparently. Elliot pulled on a blue woolen
beanie, courtesy of the NYPD, and Chris pulled on a grey one that had his
school insignia on it. On went strangely similar plaid scarves as well
before they clumped out of the unit in almost perfect timing.
"That was easy," said Munch.
"Yeah," said Cragen. "Almost too easy."
Elliot never took leave without a fight. Until recently he practically
had to be threatened with a psych evaluation before he'd consider it.
Until Chris.
"Really generous of you, Captain, letting Elliot spend Christmas with his
bro like that," said Fin.
"Call it the spirit of Christmas, but I just don't feel comfortable
having my longest-serving detective's long-lost ex-con brother spending so
much time in the precinct, looking through our current cases," said
Cragen. "Besides Elliot seemed set to spend Christmas with Chris one way
or the other."
Chris had arrived at One Six the day Olivia went on leave, ostensibly to
ask Elliot for lunch and had simply not left. He settled in like a large,
disquieting cat, mainly silent, but watchful, a presence that seemed to
take up most of the room. At first he had read a novel at Olivia's desk,
unspeaking other than when he shared Elliot's coffee break (strong, black,
no sugar for both of them). They left together that afternoon, discussing
pizza toppings and the possibility of a work out. On the second day they
arrived (and much, much later, left) together laughing, in their matching
jackets, ate a brown bag lunch at "their" desks and partook of the unit's
coffee at regular intervals.
Chris had contributed to the discussion of the latest rape-homicide the
unit was investigating over the festive season. His prognostications about
the psychology of the rapist had been uncannily acute. Huang had picked up
on that in no time at all. When he politely alluded to it, Chris had
smiled a self-deprecating smile and put it down to "experience". Precisely
what form his experience took he did not say. Huang ceased probing at that
point, but looked thoughtful.
Cragen had thought about it too. Chris's constant presence irked him,
although it clearly cheered Elliot up no end. Chris had discerned Cragen's
displeasure, although Elliot was seemingly oblivious of it. When the perp
was caught and revealed to match the profile that Chris had described, he
made a special point of catching Cragen's eye and smirking as if to say,
"See? I was right."
On the third day the twins arrived together again, in their matching
jackets. Cragen stared at them as they hung up their jackets, laughing,
always laughing. Laughing in a way Elliot had not done at work or
evidently anywhere else for years.
"Uncanny, isn't it?" said Munch from his desk, where he'd been working
already for some time when Elliot and Chris came in. "I met them in the
corridor going home yesterday and it was like that scene from The Shining,
you know, `Come and play with us, Johnny, come and play with us forever
and ever'."
"I didn't know you were into that weird ass TV shit," said Fin.
"Kubrick's Shining," Munch told him disparagingly. "The great cult
version of the book, made when you were probably still in diapers."
Chris was reading emails on Elliot's computer, while Elliot made some
calls from Olivia's phone. Seemed they were going out together soon to
time how long it would have taken the victim to walk from the club to the
crime scene.
"At least he's not taking him to interview witnesses," said Munch.
"Not yet, anyway," muttered Fin.
On the fourth day Chris arrived wearing an NYPD sweat shirt borrowed from
Elliot. That had been the last straw for Cragen and when he'd caught him
flipping through files on Elliot's desk and scanning the chart the team
had made of an old child abduction for a cold case, Cragen felt it was
time he acted. Watching them leave with such alacrity, however, he
couldn't help wondering if he had somehow been played. Please send
feedback to Rosybug.